[theboys]

Well, this is softball, but it ranks right up with the strangest sports oddities ever seen, so I'll relate it anyway.

A couple of buddies and I were early for our softball game, so we sat in the stands and watched the game in progress. Home team had runners on first and second, with no outs. Batter hit a fly ball, which was caught by the centerfielder. When the ball was hit, the runner on first took off for second, failing to tag up. The centerfielder threw the ball to the shortstop, who tagged the runner from first, who was already on the bag with the runner originally on second. The umpire correctly called the runner from first out. BUT, the runner from second left the bag, and started walking toward the dugout. The shortstop then tagged that player out, and the whole team started screaming, "Triple play, triple play!".

We haven't even reached the odd part yet. The umpires became confused, so conferred for a couple of minutes. The batter, who had trotted down to first, stood on the bag watching the meeting. The runner from first who left the bag early, stood on second, doing the same. The runner who had walked off second base, stood about halfway to third, waiting for the umpires' decision.

As hard as it is to believe, the umpires finally looked at first and saw a runner there, looked at second and saw a runner there, and must've thought the runners were the original baserunners. They told both to stay at their bases. Not sure what to do with the runner standing between second and third, they sent him to third. Bases loaded! Nobody out!

As you can imagine, the visiting team went berserk. The pitcher went into a fit that would make Bobby Knight proud. He was eventually thrown out for his creative use of the english language.

Later on, we found out the pitcher was the minister for one of the local Baptist churches.

All true.